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Guardiola: Defeat is good for City

Cape Town - Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola believes the defeat to Shakhtar Donetsk on Wednesday will have a positive effect on the club.

The Citizens were unbeaten across all competitions heading into the UEFA Champions League Group F clash, but lost 2-1 in Ukraine after Bernard and Ismaily found the back of the net for the hosts, with Sergio Aguero pulling one back in stoppage time.

Despite the defeat, City finished as group winners and they now look ahead to the highly anticipated top-of-the-table Manchester derby on Sunday.

"It hurts," said Guardiola, according to the Daily Mail. "It's never nice to lose.

"But we needed to lose a game. It will be good for the club, for all of us. People say things when you win a lot and you can forget that now.

"We came here when our job was done. We tried. People cannot say we didn't come to try to win the game.

"Now we are going to see on Sunday. Football is about how you recover in good and bad moments and try to stay stable.

"We have said many times we cannot win all the time, we are going to lose games. Today was the first. Now we have to recover. It's another competition, the Premier League.

"But the world is not going to finish on Sunday. It doesn't matter what is going to happen."

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